Welcome FellowshipProgram Manager, Christa Myers

I am pleased to introduce the newest member of the Reclaiming Futures National Program Office, Christa Myers.
Please see our conversation below to learn how you can help Christa achieve one of her goals in the first 90 days of work.
You'll also find out which famous animal she played at a youth conference. Please welcome Christa in the comments section below!
Susan J. Richardson (SJR)
Christa Myers (CM) 
SJR) What brings you to Reclaiming Futures?
CM) I have been working as Project Director/Juvenile Drug Court Program Coordinator at a Reclaiming Futures site for 5.5 years. I was hired for that position with a youth development background, having worked for:

• Ohio State University Extension, Hocking County (4-H);
• National Crime Prevention Council, Youth Division;
• Sunday Creek Associates, Youth Entrepreneurial Project; and
• Hocking County Juvenile Court/Children's Service, Summer Program for Girls.

I look forward to working on a national level to bring my strengths and skills from my work in Hocking County to the National Program Office.
SJR) What are you most interested in learning?
CM) I am most interested in learning more about each of our 37 sites. I have thoroughly enjoyed my coaching role with Hardin and Lucas Counties, Ohio, and Forsyth County, N.C., because I get to know more about their local work and can celebrate their successes along with them. I look forward to experiencing this with all the sites in the national learning collaborative.
SJR) What do you hope to achieve in your first 90 days at Reclaiming Futures?
CM) I am terrible with name recall, so I hope I will be able to associate names with roles and locations in the first 90 days. But please forgive me if I make mistakes!

SJR) Please tell us an interesting fact about you.
CM) When I worked for the National Crime Prevention Council I portrayed McGruff the Crime Dog at a Youth Outreach for Victim's Assistance youth conference. When you are a McGruff portrayer, you can only make certain motions with your hands and can't talk. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I had to break the rules. If you are interested in the circumstances, please ask me to share the rest of the story when you see me.
SJR) Name one food you couldn't live without.
CM) This is tough. I guess I will go with lettuce because I am not a great cook; but who can ruin a salad?
SJR) What was the best book you have read in the past year?
CM) I enjoy participating in book clubs, and my favorite book that I read with the club this year was "Prodigal Summer" by Barbara Kingsolver. I really appreciate her descriptive use of the English language. In fact, one of my all-time favorite books is also by Kingsolver, "The Poisonwood Bible".
SJR) What is your favorite quote?
CM) "A wise old owl lived in an oak. The more he saw the less he spoke. The less he spoke the more he heard. Why can't we all be like that wise old bird?"

Susan Richardson is national executive director for Reclaiming Futures. Formerly, she was a senior program officer in the health care division of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust in North Carolina, where she led a three-year effort involving the state's juvenile justice and treatment leaders to adopt the Reclaiming Futures model by juvenile courts in six North Carolina counties. She received her B.S. in Public Health, Health Policy and Administration, from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.